Thursday, October 07, 2010

Dear Grandaddy, The Tea Party has Hijacked your Republican Party


My grandaddy was a Staunch Lifelong Republican. His sock drawer was full of "I Like Ike" and Nixon buttons. From an early age as a child of the Sixties I would argue politics with him at the Dining Room Table. Giving me great pride he called me the "Most Annoying AntiWar Hippy" ( I was all of 8 ). In previous posts years ago I described the heap of trouble I got into calling Nixon names at that very table. The thing is that my grandfather defended the Ideology of that time period and he defended the policies. He even tried to defend Nixon, but at certain point he stopped, even blaming Nixon's downfall on Nixon's inability to choose good people to be his Team. He also taught me how to play baseball, how to play Fair, and to play by the rules.He truly believed in What was Right..... From the time I was seven on we argued Dems Vs. Repubs, but we argued Principles of Democracy.

He believed his party to be Strong Minded Moral Economically sound leaders, that they made foresighted decisions that were for the better of the Country. But he also believed that they cared about the Country as much as Democrats, that they were never against Other Americans.

I look at the Politics of where we are right now in History and I don't think my grandaddy would recognize this era of the Republican Party. The Repubs of today are not troubled that they are called the Party of NO during the worst economy since the 1930s? That more than 15 Million Americans are out of work and struggling to find work ? That more than 8 million have lost their homes in a Foreclosure Scandal of epic proportions ? That 41.8 Million Americans are on Foodstamps and that includes many working poor ? That Millions of Americans are UnderEmployed and working multiple jobs to make ends meet ? That more than 51 Million Americans are without ANY Healthcare ?

The Question is when did they become so selfish and shortsighted that the plight of Other Americans became something for them to ridicule and malign ? Newt Gingrich this week came out making snide comments about people on Food Stamps as though that was the new Republican Stance. Yet during the Health Care battle last year we all saw that suddenly People without Healthcare were not viewed with ANY compassion , instead they were thrown jeering insults and disparaging remarks at the Health Care Rallies. Many of those at the Rallies were Teabaggers and they proudly yelled their rants and insults.

But sometime over the past year the Republicans started embracing those insults and jeers as their own as an effort to win favor and votes. And the Hatemongering as a tool began to be embraced as well. And the Hatemongering was not just for the UnInsured it was for the Umemployed, the Foreclosed and Homeless, and the People that were from Somewhere Else, ie. Immigrants and people of color. And the MSM brandished the Hatemongering Tea Party Movement falsely calling their Hate and anger as "Enthusiasm". And sadly in a period of months the MSM had Legitimized a HateMongering Anger fueled Movement , full of Right Wing Racist Extremists funded by Big Corporations and Industry. The Tea Party Movement that is now being wooed by the Republicans is not full of Patriotic Americans that want to heal this country, Our Country, it is full of Angry Baggers, Birthers and Militia and Klan. It is dangerous and the MSM (CNN) has fed this movement and distorted what and who they are, and sadly at some point they will have to recognize the dangerous movement they have falsely coddled and foolishly nurtured.

This Election will be telling what happens next in this Battle for Our Country , it is up to Americans to send a Message to the MSM and DC that we don't want to become a Hatemongering Warmongering McCarthy Era Country run by people that lack Wisdom and Compassion.....The Republican Party has morphed into something ugly and dangerous, but we also need Stronger Dems to stand up to this level of Hatemongering Dangerous Rhetoric and Idealogy that lacks Humanity and Vision.

My grandfather and I argued about fundamental political principles for many years. We never argued which party had lost it's way or lost sight of Humanity. He is no longer here, which is good, he would be heartbroken by what has happened to his party.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~Sinclair Lewis. Look at the Teaagger Hatemail and rallies and tell me what you see. I KNOW what I see.....

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Blogpost for a 8 year old hippie way to turn the volume up on the truth.

enigma4ever said...

thanks yogi...
yeah...I think that 8yr old hippie is still alive and well..and pissed...all be damned if these Teabaggers are going to take this Country away from us....all of us..we fought to get rid of Bush...and now we can fight them off too...

Anon-Paranoid said...

Hi Enigma my sweet rose...

I once did a contact President Obama during the Health Care Reform Bill.

In it I told him that you can not compromise with terrorist they will kill you and you can not compromise with Republican Nazi's, they will also kill you.

What I wrote then is still true today. The policies of the Republican Party are the same as the policies of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1930's Germany.
They are no different.

The hate and fear mongering garbage being spewed by them and the Nazi Tea Baggers is no different than what was used against Blacks, Roma's and Jews in Nazi Germany by Hitlers Propagandist. Only know its against Blacks, Hispanics and Muslims.

The majority of the Tea Baggers is old and white. All one had to do is see how many people of color were at Nazi Beck's rally on MLK day compared to who attended the One Nation Rally a short time ago.

That should say everything that needs to be said about the Republican Nazi Party to the American People.

If we the real Americans fail to show up at the voting booth in November to make sure that the Nazi's do not take control of our Government again then our country is lost to the Corporations, Fascist, Racist, Bigots of the Republican Nazi Party.

Take care and God Bless you Enigma...

PS: So happy to see that all though things have not been going smoothly for you that you are and 6'6" are doing alright

enigma4ever said...

AnonP:
thank you for coming by...ahh yes, the Teabaggers are not about Diversity...I do think I saw 3 people of color at the Beckerhead rally on tv...but I am worried about this country..and what happens next...but you are right it all comes down to US showing up at the polls...so so true..

mbarnato said...

Hate & fear mongering have always been among the lower forces of human nature, but what seems to be different is the amount of acceptance that behavior has been given by society. Hate talk was considered shameful, now it's practically celebrated in the 24/7 "if it bleeds it leads" news cycle. It's become OK to be openly racist & to scapegoat. Hate is such a volatile emotion; it amps people up in a way that slowing down to be understanding & compassionate do not. You're so right, Allie; we have to keep coalescing to counter that force in every way possible. We can't allow it to take over our country. That is not what we're about; I do believe that.

Dr. Know said...

Valid point.

You know the GOP has totally jumped the tracks when you find yourself actually waxing nostalgic about the Nixon era. Never forget, however, that Darth Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, et al. actually cut their teeth in his administration. Even Nixon accomplished a few positive things for the American public; the latter day remnants, not so much. It's been a long, bumpy downhill slide.

Dr. Know said...

BTW, I have a picture to go with your closing quote:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_O60Jg7biNLw/TK9lpYI419I/AAAAAAAAAks/7icTJQATILY/s1600/fascism-sarah-palin-flag-fascist-cross-republican-demotivational-poster.jpg

Later.

D.K. Raed said...

Dear Enigma, thank you for this.

We used to hear more about the old-line repubs who seemed appalled at what was happening. Remember Christie Todd Whitman, "It's My Party, too"? Sadly, it seems the GOP is no longer her or any moderate's party. But since her type of repub were the ones who replaced the Nelson Rockefeller repub-brand, maybe they should've recognized the trend earlier.

My family were all FDR-Dems, so I didn't really have a family repub view for comparison until my own brother turned into a TP nutcase. I found out first-hand from trying to talk to him that there is NO talking to them. NONE. You can't talk to a sick mind.

Re: the MSM fascination with and overcoverage of TP'ers ... I think it started out with a kind of "look how nuts these people are" coverage ... but over the long HCR fight last summer, they found out people will tune into endless TP coverage, sometimes for the bizzaro factor, the outrage, and sadly sometimes because something is resonating with them.

I might blame the MSM for the initial overcoverage, but I also blame the viewers for feeding off of it thus increasing the news ratings. It's a bad choice for us when we'd like to simply tune out the TP nonsense, but we can't turn our backs on them because they are like sharks in the ocean and we, the captive news audience, are the chum.

enigma4ever said...

Deb:
...that is so true..we are the "chum" that says it all...about the media I have no idea if they are really ratings catchers or not-we have no real way to get to the truth of that one....either way they have garnered unwarranted attention-I think in a way it is like rubbernecking on the highway- we all are trapped in the stream of traffic stairing that the WRECK off to the side of our vision....with nothing else to see....

But you are right we need to keep sharp...

Dr.Know:::
lovely to see you friend...yeah...too funny ME or any of us waxing sentimental over the OLD days of the Repub party...and it's true that Bush had the Nixon scumlings on deck- Rummy to cheny....but still Nixon was a perdictable quanity ....

Maureen:::
what you said is so true-that is not what we are about...not at all...but in our lifetime I don't ever remember such hatemongering so embraced-covered with such glee....past any level of manners or decorum or even journalism rules....so yes, it is up to all of us to fight back...the media never will...

Fran said...

The problem I am having is with the Dems. I keep getting solicited to rally this & door to door canvas & make phone calls.
Although there is no doubt in my mind that the party of No would do (has done) infinitely more damage, I can't get all excited about the Dems either.
Many have blue dogged it to the point of being unrecognizable as democrats anymore, while others just stall with the infighting.

Even my local politician (D) DeFazio, his commercial touts the fact he fought "Pelosi" and "Obama" (not even president Obama), over certain thing like TARP $.
That's his best shot-- that he infights with the speaker of the House & President Obama?

And again, I feel fed up with his crap, and yet- the person running against him is 10 x worse.
Would alow offshore oil drilling off the coast of Oregon/West Coast & thinks climate change is not real.
So I have to choose between the war funding douche or the much worse, nightmarish candidate.

I hate having to make those kinds of choices.
I feel stuck. Disenchanted.

The whole system is broken- on all sides of the aisle.

enigma4ever said...

Sadly the Tea party and the repubs have created Hell...and sadly you either vote DEM or you are helping the Teaparty to take over....the dems have made many mistakes,misteps and mis-manuvered...BUT it's better than repub Boehner Teaparty hell....we must not let them get power...

I know many say they are disenchanted.....
but it could be worse..
it could be Palin and McCain sitting in DC running our country into the ground....

yeah....that's the best I can do fran..sorry

Christopher said...

Enigma,

You may be interested in this cat I blogged about last night from the great state of Ohio.

His name is Richard Iott.

Iott is a Republican and a Tea Party darling. He's running for the U.S. Congress representing NW Ohio.

What makes him particularly odorous is, he likes to wear Nazi drag! I'm not joking. Iott and pals are members of something called Wiking. Members of Wiking are devoted to re-enacting exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Iott's campaign website makes no mention of his peculiar fetish and when asked about it, Iott admitted to The Atlantic that he likes Nazi drag and claims he only did it to "bond" with his son.

So, in the bizarre world of the 21st century GOP/Teabagger party, father/son bonding includes Nazism. Scary shit, huh?

Here's a link:

http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/why-is-this-republican-house-candidate-dressed-in-nazi-drag/

Distributorcap said...

enigma---

hope you are well

what a terrific piece of writing - while i truly do believe the modern republican party - the party LED by limbaugh, coulter, kristol, beck, palin and gingrich - is virtually the same as the NSDAP of 1930's Germany in thought and deed - they would not be where they are in acceptance and strength without a complicit and enabling MSM - some of which is owned by the very Teabag/Nazi members --

as bad as it was under Bush/Gingrich - just wait until it is under some combo of Palin, Huckabee or any GOP member who is now beholden to the Teabagggers

tom said...

They pursued this way, they were tired of so many years in the wilderness...they were tired of Liberal policies (from Dear FDR and Eleanor and even Harry Truman)
So the sought out corporate money and began to hatch a plan to recover from their generational losses.
they
1) setteled on FEAR (see Joe McCarthy)
2) setteled on GREED (them other folks are taking your jobs)
3) setteled on anti intellectualism
4) setteled on FEAR of the other (the blacks, mexicans RUSSIANS
5) Rolled it into one large ball and moved into newspapers and broadcasting
It was the being in the wilderness that cemented their policies and vision...(fatal vision)
oh, LOL I left out #6 lie about democrats, teachers, union members and other non protestant religions...

Smalltown RN said...

Enigma...I don't get involved in politics the way you do but I am glad there are people out there who can speak so well on the subject.

I was watching Ralph Maher today and he was quoting some statistics about how the upper class use to make 43% more than the middle class...he quoted a number today that made my chin drop...he said that the upper class now make 531% more than the working class!!! What in gods name is going on and how in the heck are we allowing this to happen!

Commander Zaius said...

The Republican Party has morphed into something ugly and dangerous, but we also need Stronger Dems to stand up...

Amen, I've tried to talk with Teabaggers both in person and on the Internet, it just isn't possible. They are completely delusional and ultimately dangerous. Beck the other day was blaming a satirical cartoon aimed at him using Donald Duck as being government funded propaganda.
In the past we had a robust economy that eventually let the air out of these nutcases when it started growing again, now our economy is much weaker and I don’t see these people fading away.

Kittie Howard said...

Great post, Enigma. I'm happy the 8-year-old hippie is still alive...and sorry your grandfather passed (he seemed like a great guy!).

After reading thru the comments above, there's nothing I can add except to say I'm truly sick at heart over what's happening and fear the worst is yet to come. I can only hope the Dems get off the couch and the Independents come to their senses and vote!!

(And hope things are going better for you!!! Have thought about you and send positive karma your way.)

Mauigirl said...

You're so right. In fact, most of the Democrats we now have might have once been Republicans back in those days...back when they were so-called Rockefeller Republicans...or Eisenhower. I watch Youtube videos of old Eisenhower speeches and can't imagine a modern-day Republican saying the things he said. I would totally vote for Ike if he were back now! It's amazing how it has all changed. Sure, there were always mean-spirited right-wingers, but that's what they were, fringe elements - not mainstream Republicans. Now the endangered breed of moderate Republicans is down to about 3. It's a sad day.